硅谷两大女强人成功之路大比拼

    图书营销史上还从来没有出现过像谢莉尔•桑德伯格这次这样的大手笔。

    上周四，纽约市市长迈克•布隆博格和知名女博主阿丽安娜•赫芬顿在纽约为Facebook首席运营官谢莉尔•桑德伯格举办了一场聚会，邀请了前美国财长蒂姆•盖特纳、电影导演乔治•卢卡斯和芭芭拉•沃尔特斯，等等。上周五早晨，桑德伯格携父母在摩根大通（JP Morgan Chase）总部与公司CEO杰米•戴蒙共进早餐，并就如何激励和授权女性高管进行了宣讲。上周日，哥伦比亚电视频道（CBS）的《60分钟》（60 Minutes）栏目对桑德伯格和她的新书《向前一步：女性、工作和领导意志》（Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead）进行了专题报道。本周《时代》周刊（Time）的封面人物也是桑德伯格，封面上她自信而沉着地站着，前方是一行字“Don't Hate Her Because She's Successful”（别因为她成功了就恨她）。

    与此同时，在3,000英里之外的硅谷，雅虎（Yahoo）CEO玛丽莎•梅耶尔正潜心于公司事务，拒绝公开讨论她颇具争议的“坐班”政策，竭力避开媒体的关注。

    桑德伯格力争成为新一代有抱负女性之楷模，但这样的角色可不是梅耶尔愿意承担的。

    恕我将两人做一番比较，因为实在很难忍不住不去做这样的比较。

    首先，让我们看看她们的相似之处。除了同为硅谷最有影响力的女性外，桑德伯格和梅耶尔也是离开谷歌（Google）的所有高管中名声最响亮的人。她们是《财富》杂志（Fortune）年度最具影响力商界女性榜单（Most Powerful Women list）中上升最快的明星（在2012年排名中，桑德伯格排在第8位，梅耶尔排第14位。）而且，从桑德伯格的扩大影响圈策略（办聚会！做演讲！上电视！依靠圈子！）和梅耶尔的新人事政策来看，这两位女性眼下都在挑战职场的常规。

    但是两人的相似之处也就到此为止了。为了理解这两位女性有多么不同，先要知道她们的出身。桑德伯格的父亲是佛罗里达州的一位眼科医生，还有两位当医生的兄弟姐妹。在那次摩根大通的早餐会上，桑德伯格的父亲约尔•桑德伯格医生告诉我说，谢莉尔是家里的另类——她从哈佛商学院（Harvard Business School）毕业后，就在政府部门寻求职业发展【曾效力于在世界银行（World Bank）和美国财政部时的拉里•萨默斯）】，并在商界取得了巨大成功。把桑德伯格拖出从政道路的是埃里克•施密特的有力劝说（桑德伯格表示，这是她获得过的最好建议）。时任谷歌CEO的施密特2001年争取她到硅谷工作，劝她“选择增长”。“增长让每个人都获得提升。如果增长，就会取得成功。”

    Never in the history of book marketing has there been a crusade quite like Sheryl Sandberg's. Last Thursday in New York, the Facebook (FB) COO hobnobbed with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, film director George Lucas and Barbara Walters at a party in her honor hosted by Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Arianna Huffington. Friday morning at JP Morgan Chase (JPM) headquarters, she dined between CEO Jamie Dimon and her parents, and then evangelized about empowerment to executive women. Sandberg and her new book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, were featured on Sunday's 60 Minutes on CBS. This week's Time features a thoroughly self-possessed Sandberg standing behind the cover line "Don't Hate Her Because She's Successful."

    Meanwhile, 3,000 miles away in Silicon Valley, Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer hunkers down, refusing to talk publicly about her controversial no-work-from-home policy and doing all she can to stay under the radar.

    As much as Sandberg strives to be a role model for the new generation of aspiring women, that role is precisely what Mayer does not want to be.

    Pardon me for comparing the two. It's irresistible.

    First, let's acknowledge their similarities. Besides being Silicon Valley's most powerful women, Sandberg and Mayer are the two most famous executives, male or female, to leave Google (GOOG). They're the fastest-rising stars on Fortune's annual Most Powerful Women list(Sandberg is No. 8 in our 2012 rankings; Mayer is No. 14). And thanks to Sandberg's Lean In crusade (parties! speeches! TV appearances! Lean In circles!) and Mayer's new HR policy, these two women are challenging the norms of how we behave in the workplace.

    There ends the similarities. To understand how different these two women are, you have to know where they came from. Sandberg is the daughter of a Florida ophthalmologist and the sister of two doctors . Her dad, Dr. Joel Sandberg, told me at the JP Morgan Chase breakfast that Sheryl is the odd duck in the family—graduating from Harvard Business School, charting a career in government (working for Larry Summers at the World Bank and then at the U.S. Treasury), and scoring big in business. It was forceful persuasion by Eric Schmidt (the best advice she ever got, she says) that pulled Sandberg off the government track. "Go for growth," then-Google CEO Schmidt said to woo her to Silicon Valley in 2001. "Growth moves everyone up. If it's growing it works."